


Fiendfyre

by kalijean



Series: due South Wizard!Verse [26]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, due South
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Crossover, Gen, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-27
Updated: 2012-05-27
Packaged: 2017-11-06 03:21:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/414153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalijean/pseuds/kalijean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray Kowalski's got a little secret.  Even from himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fiendfyre

God, I hate this same old song and dance, but I can't make myself quit.

Stella feels right walking beside me. None of that weird couple shit when you don't know the beat of somebody; how fast they walk, the rhythm of their step, whether they'd rather walk just behind you or just ahead, what side they wanna walk on. 

We walk the same, you know?

So why's it got to feel so much like we don't know what the fuck we're doing anymore?

I walk, and I don't think about Fraser. Or how pathetic it is I'm chasing Stella when he's off-- _I don't think about Fraser._ The Goat is a couple blocks away. In the opposite direction. Sometimes I dunno why I try anymore.

"Ray, we've been through this." 

"Look, just come back with me. We can talk. We can--"

"Yeah. Exactly."

God. I move so I'm walking backwards. Our normal beat kinda hurts right now. Only, I'm not so talented at walking backwards, so it's probably only a shock to me when I hit a crack in the pavement and end up on my ass.

Well. Ass and side. I hear something crunch, praying to God it's a rib and not what I think it is, but I'm not that lucky. Stella's standing over me; she shakes her head, letting out this noise that I know is pity. 'Cause I'm so pathetic I can't even beg her to come back with me without fucking it up. 

I roll over and stick my hand in my pocket. My glasses come out, the lenses in like three pieces. I just sigh and shove 'em back into my pocket.

Ah, shit. Somebody's laughing, 'cause this day wasn't a big enough kick in the balls yet. I'm up and on my feet, putting on my best 'throw one, asshole' pose even though my side feels like somebody jammed a pair of broken glasses into it. Arms out. I can _feel_ Stella rolling her eyes.

"Ray--"

"What?" I just talk right over her to upnod at the guys down the alley laughing it up. God, what's wrong with me? Why can't I shut my mouth? "Somethin' funny?" 

That's about when I get a look at 'em. _Whoa_. Three guys, all dressed real funny. Cloaks. _Great_. Laughingstock of the local D &D crowd. I'm doin' well today. 

The laughing don't stop, anyway, and these guys might be geeks or whatever but they're geeks that look pretty damn full of themselves. They're holding some kinda _sticks_ , and man, does my deja vu go off the scale when I see that. Been happening a lot lately. Something about this doesn't sit right with me, and I might look stupid, but I'm stepping in front of Stella.

They laugh again, apparently the kind of assholes that don't answer questions when they're trying to be menacing. I dunno what the sticks are for. I laugh back, because what else can I do?

"These?" I think I catch one of 'em saying.

"Mm-hm," the one at the back says. " _Attitude._ "

The one at the front - blond, has a nasty scar across his cheek, has to be nasty if I can see it without my glasses - holds out his stick and says something else. A couple of things, one after another. Red light and then my eyes feel like somebody's tossed sand in 'em and I hit the ground screaming. I'm sure the rest of me is torn up with _hot fucking nails_ driven through me.

I'm in a ball on the ground, and-- and-- there's no _blood_ \--

I'm having some kinda seizure-- I hear Stella shout. Fuck. Fuck. I hear myself still screaming. She's over top of me. And then she's not. I hear a crack that I know way too well means body hitting pavement, and I'm clawing my way up past the pain. I only just make myself roll over before I fall again, hearing my glasses crunch another time. 

Stella's covered in red light. Then she's screaming, too.

I get a look at the other two. Some pockmarked guy with green teeth, and the other's kinda plain, black hair. One of the guys says something else, and I'm not fucking all here, because now she's floating. I watch her scramble for a rock on the pavement before she's out of reach, and she knocks it off Green-teeth's forehead.

He cries out and the third guy sneers, his face twisted up in more hate than it takes to be a random rough-up. He whips that stick around so hard I think he's gonna throw it at her, but more light comes out.

I'm finally staggering over when Stella goes stiff and hits the ground.

I make some kinda noise, everything in my gut twisted and sick and I might fucking puke. She's... she's _stiff_ , staring at nothing, and I think they killed her. 

Killed her. 

I've got the shakes and I know they're watching me when I touch her hair. Crouched over her. Her eyes don't look right. They're laughing again. Two of 'em, anyway. 

"Filthy muggle cut my forehead," Green-teeth's saying, and it doesn't make a damn bit of sense to me.

"We'll be sure to stop by and tell your ma," one of them says, all sarcastic, and it sounds all far away to me.

I can't see right. No-- I _can_. But my glasses are all smashed, why the Hell can I see right?

It's daylight but the street lights come on. Flicker. I dunno why it feels like the world right before a thunderstorm. Not a cloud in the sky.

I think all this shit in some place in the back of my mind. Everything else is just blood in my ears. Something going hot in my chest. Stella's still not moving. Dead. Gone. Dead. 

They're laughing again, except for green-teeth. Walking up on me, holding out those sticks. Green-teeth is rubbing his head where Stella got him. Don't worry, Stella. I'll finish the job. 

Something spikes up through me, the kinda urge you get when a collar's being a real shit and all you wanna do is grab 'em by the hair and beat their head into a wall, but it's on fire. I can hear my heart in my ears. Something's cracking, snapping, a beat like rap blasting out of a car and rattling the windows of two blocks around.

My chest feels like it's about to explode, pounding, screaming, tearing a hole and tasting like blood and all I see is red in the air. Red like looking through water and three guys in cloaks looking--

I hear something tear. Fucking _hear it_ , like I just ripped my pants, but it's everywhere. 

My teeth hurt. 

Red. Fire. Screaming.

...oh.

 

The smell of warm grass is nice. Stella always looked pretty in summer. She's colored for it, you know? Yellow hair. Maybe we were colored for it. Made for summer, her and me. Made for each other.

She laughs, so I guess I must have told her that. Her head rested on my shoulder. I dunno where the music's coming from, but we've been dancing forever. 

"Yeah? You like that? Cut from the same mold, that's you and me."

Stella doesn't say anything, but she picks her head up to smile at me. I smile back.

's perfect.

 

_"Ah, God."_

_"_ Finite incantatem. _"_

_"He's still alive."_

_"Petrificus. She has been tortured."_

_"They're the lucky ones. I think these used to be people, Ren."_

 

The music went funny there.

I know it's written all over my face, 'cause those notes were all wrong, but she's still smiling at me. Warm and sweet, like the day we got married. I get a little lost in it, because the music doesn't really matter when she's looking at me like that. 

I shut my eyes and dance.

 

_"Dewey's on scene. He's got a good idea of who the bodies used to be, and the answer ain't comforting."_

_"_ Reparo. _"_

_"More of a favor if you got him new ones."_

_"Hey, I didn't mean it like that, Benny."_

_"...I know, Ray."_

 

Fraser's got colors for winter.

I guess I must have said that out loud too, 'cause she shushes me, leaning so her nose brushes mine. Okay, so I know it's not... you know. It's not smart to talk about that when she's here. I still don't get it. It's true, though. Stella's summer. Fraser's winter. Dunno who my spring and fall are.

We spin around, and you know that's my favorite part? Her weight. It's perfect, 'cause mine knows just how to lean to take her in a circle, that pretty yellow hair fanning out like that. 

When my eyes open, it's snowing out. White in her hair when it falls back down to her shoulders.

Stella's still smiling at me. Blood running down her temple.

 

 

_"I took care of her. Took her to the hospital, looks for all the world like a mugging gone wrong. Won't remember a thing. Question is now, what the Hell do we do with him?"_

_"The result is the same, every time. This is not a fluke. He was the epicentre. This should not be possible."_

_"Yeah, but who are we gonna tell? What's gonna happen if we tell 'em this? I'll tell you: nothing good. He's too old. They'll obliviate him if he's lucky, and somebody's going to point out how dangerous it is having him walking around clueless to the fact he might blow his cork at any second."_

_"We must report his torture. He needs _help_."_

_"Yeah. I know that. So who's left that _you_ trust, Benny?"_

_"Ray..."_

_"No, Fraser. No. They're going to want to know why the detectors missed him. They're going to want to know why we haven't reported the other fifty billion times we've obliviated him. Nobody's going to want to expend resources on a half-feral wizard when the politics are so thick higher up you could spread it on mashed potatoes. Best case scenario, he ends up somebody's _pet_. They'll send him to school with a bunch of little kids, laugh at the muggle falling on his face, call it a lost cause and shove him into work as a groundskeeper somewhere to keep him out of sight. That's _if_ nobody thinks maybe a magical loose canon should be put out of everyone's misery for _public safety_. The department's got bigger things on its plate than remedial education, Fraser. You mark my words. You turn him over, you won't see him again."_

_"--Gentlemen, it may interest you to know we have company."_

 

I'm in Fraser's matchstick bed. Give Canadians one thing; they know how to bundle a guy up warm. Dunno why I'm cold. His blankets all smell like him. They smell like her too, but I'm not thinking about that. I feel hungover. Maybe he brought me home with him to sleep it off.

I'm not lucky enough to think maybe I spent the night for another reason I don't remember. But I keep my eyes shut and my breathing even, smelling his bed, pretending for a little while that it's our smell, not him and her, that I got a right to be here.

"Hello, Ray."

Heh. Should really guess that Frase would see through an act. Might've been nice of him to let me dream a little while, but I guess somebody rolls out at the crack of dawn, us crack-of-noon types make 'em twitchy.

I keep my eyes shut for a few seconds longer, anyway. Still a little cold. Getting better. Damn sure feels good to be buried under all these blankets, though. When I open my eyes, Fraser is watching me with a kind of dead-eyed worry, and that's about when ten gallons of heartbreak hit me.

I kick off the covers and I'm out of that bad so fast even Fraser barely catches me from tearing my way out the door, too scared to even cuss at him for having me up here when I should be-- should-- wait-- where?

"Stella--"

"She's alive, Ray."

" _Move_ \--"

"She's alive, Ray, she's safe. You have to stop. Stop."

All I wanna do is fight while he's backing me to that cot. I grab the front of something plaid, yanking it to get his Goddamn attention because clearly he doesn't _get it_ , and he's saying something placating and calm that makes me wanna kick his head in.

My ass involuntarily hits the cot and it's then it sinks into my head. What he said. Good thing the cot's there. Everything else is spinning.

"Where...?"

"Recovering."

"I should be with her."

"You can't be, Ray." Frase has that look on his face like his heart hurts, eyes kinda pinched up like he'd cry if he knew how. "Not now, not tomorrow, likely not for a long time. Not if you wish her to remain safe."


End file.
